Tuesday 19/06/07

Woke early today and the guardian had left us out a breakfast (6 euro )the coffee was most welcome.

Not really sure what to expect from today as there was a lot of talk about the spasmata slabs.

we left at 6.25 am

After a steep decent we came to the spasimata suspension bridge . something I had been looking forward too.Glad to say at that time we were the only walkers around so there was no hurry and we could cross it one at a time.It was great fun but did wobble and sway quite a bit.

Next came the slabs, nothing like I expected infact it took me a while to realize I was actually walking across the much talked about slabs.The give away was the cables attached to some of the rock.Care had to be taken but as the weather was good we had no problems.

We then had a steep and rocky ascent until we got a great view of the ski station at Haut Asco.

This is when Geoff got his brain wave…. instead of doing the very long and rocky decent down to the ski station he wanted to carry on and do the next days walking as well. This maybe would have been a good idea apart from the fact that the next day was The Cirque de la solitude.

On one hand I could see his point, as by carrying on we would not have to drop down then climb back up tomorrow morning but on the other hand as I didn’t know what to expect from the cirque (and was quite worried about it )I wanted to be nice and fresh for it after a good nights sleep in the hotel.

So I insisted we carry on down, although I was real mad at myself and wish I felt different about it.

It was a long and very rocky descent to Haut Asco I questioned myself over and over again wondering if we should have carried on.

We finally arrived at Haut Asco at 12.20 .. 6 hours after setting off.

Had a room booked at the Hotel chalet so enjoyed a great hot shower.

My legs ached a little and I had hot spots on the bottom of my big toes.